The campaign is on. Metro is trying to educate riders about its new plan to start rerouting some Blue Line trains onto the Yellow Line beginning June 18, affecting service on the Orange, Yellow and Green lines, too.
Riders may have noticed signs touting what the agency has dubbed “Rush+” with round stickers that look like a plus sign or the symbol for a transfer station with different color lines. A dozen train cars have been decked out in signs. The agency has made videos and an interactive map and soon will deploy “street teams” that will hand out information as the agency says it is trying to create “buzz.”
It’s all part of the challenge of changing how riders navigate the system in the first major service upheaval in years.
The entire change is expected to cost the agency about $6 million.
The initial information campaign alone is expected to cost about $400,000, said Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
That’s $165,000 for the videos, fliers and other materials given to riders, about $133,000 in advertising for newspapers, radio stations and online outlets, and $72,000 in system ads on buses, trains and stations. Another $29,000 is expected to be spent on training Metro staff on how to explain the change.
The agency is planning to spend another $2.4 million updating all the 4,600 system maps and evacuation charts in the system, plus more than 2,600 station signs. Then it will cost an estimated $2.9 million in the next budget for the changes to the actual rail service.
The service change is an attempt by the agency to make room for the coming Silver Line, freeing up space in the Potomac River tunnel between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom.
The agency will reroute three Blue Line trains per hour from 6:30 until 9 a.m. and then again from 3:30 until 6 p.m. onto the Yellow Line bridge between Pentagon and L’Enfant Plaza. Some Orange Line trains will be routed onto the east end of the Blue Line to end at Largo Town Center, not New Carrollton. That translates into more rush hour service for some riders on the Orange, Yellow and Green lines. Some 6 percent of riders — about 16,000 — will have longer waits on the Blue Line, though.
Still, even with all the information push, Metro officials acknowledge it will be challenging to communicate to riders how the service is changing. They urge riders to pay attention to the destination sign on trains, not just the color of the line.
